Roadrunners route Neb-Omaha in extra innings

DENVER- The Metro State Roadrunners are up and running on the Auraria Campus’ diamond as softball gets an early jump on the season. The team played two games on Friday and two games on Saturday. Even with the windy Rocky Mountain chill, the athletes fought hard playing in temperatures as low as 34-degrees.

The women’s team started the day off by beating the #12-ranked Nebraska-Omaha in an extra-innings game 7-6 on Friday. The game lasted over three hours, but in the bottom of the ninth, Metro State’s Jennessa Tessone and Lauren Hainlen waked, then a grounder by Molly Clark allowed Tessone to slide home safely and score the winning run.
As the temperatures were dropping and the sun was setting, the girls knew that the battle was only half over.

“It’s early in the year, and being in the RMAC you’re bound to play in freezing weather,” said catcher Lauren Hainlen. “So you just need to learn how to fight through it… We had to re-energize and focus our strength into the next game.”

Strength is exactly what they did as they came back and beat Nebraska-Omaha again 7-6.

“We saw that our strength surpassed theirs and we wanted it more,” said right fielder Jennessa Tessone. “We weren’t about to let cold weather get in the way. You just can’t think about it. All you need to think about is how you need to fight hard and count on your team to play their hardest. And we do. We all trust each other. That’s probably the best part of our team.”

Tessone isn’t the only one who believes that. Junior short-stop Amber Roundtree commented on trust. “Since we know we’re all going to be there for each other, “ Roundtree said, we don’t have to play with fear. We’re confident in each other and trust each other so it’s fun… Who cares that they’re ranked! We don’t even look at that. All we know is how hard we’re working, and how good we are. This trust is going to be our greatest threat.”

The Saturday games started with a 3-5 loss to Fort Hays State, but they quickly came back to beat them in a 10-2 win in just five innings.

“We had to show them that we’re stronger than them,” Hainlen said. “It felt good to run-rule them after they thought they had the games in the bag. It shows the kind of team we are and how we will be this season. We’ll fight however hard we need to-freezing cold or 95 degrees!”
The roadrunners are set to take on Minnesota State, Mankato next Friday, Feb. 19.